2009 is a great year to teach the Pre-Raphaelites, largely due to a sumptuous Waterhouse Exhibition at the Royal Academy in London and also the fantastic new online resources from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (BMAG).

Here’s a round-up of those resources and also what else is available on this influential group of artists.

The Royal Academy has a teachers and students’ online guide to accompany its blockbuster Pre-Raphaelite retrospective JW Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition and offers accessible background information on the Pre-Raphaelites.

(Above) BMAG's website The Pre-Raph Pack.

If you want a completely pupil-friendly overview of the Pre-Raphaelites (and much, much more), discover the rich delights of the Pre-Raph Pack BMAG web resource.

The Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource site from BMAG hosts the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.

If it’s pixel perfect images of the Pre-Raphaelites you are after, then try the fantastic, Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource from BMAG. This offers access to 2,000 fine and decorative pieces from BMAG’s Pre-Raphaelite collection.

The site uses Microsoft Silverlight technology, which has a Deep Zoom function and allows the viewer to see the intense Pre-Raphaelite colours, brush strokes and pencil etchings in high quality detail.

A screenshot from BMAG's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource site featuring a close-up of John Everett Millais' Blind Girl (1865).

You can now scrutinise the works in extraordinary detail. For example, in John Everett Millais' Blind Girl (1856), you can see vital details to unlock the painting’s meaning such as the note under the girl's shawl which is half hidden in shadow.

The note reads "PITY The BLIND" and further highlights the contemporary social issue of vagrancy in the work with a focus on children and disability.

The artists’ techniques as well as their focus on contemporary problems can also be investigated with the Deep Zoom function.

A close-up examination of The Pretty Baa-Lambs (1851-59) by Ford Maddox Brown reveals exquisite plein-air details such as the mother’s rosy face, the shadows cast by the sun at a particular time of day and the colour of the shadow itself. Note how the shadow cast by the flowers the baby is holding is actually blue.

Manchester Art Gallery has a great interactive on another famous work of the artist. Work (1852-65) has an audio-visual introduction and exploration of the painting including six of the painting's characters coming to life.

(Above) Screenshot of Sir John Everett Millais' Ophelia, (1851-1852) taken from Tate's website.

If this inspires you and your class to go along and see the real works, museums and galleries around the country have a wealth of Pre-Raphaelite art on show.

From Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Scotland with work by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones down to the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth with Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Venus Verticordia (1864-8).